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Statistics from a Personal Injury Lawyer in Ajax

Motor vehicle accidents are hardly a simple problem. Though you might think that all they are is two cars colliding, there’s so much more than that: they can involve a single car or dozens, they can bring about injury or death or no ill effects at all on the people involved, they can be caused by a slew of factors, they can impact pedestrians and cyclists--clearly, auto accidents are multifaceted. As an experienced personal injury lawyer in Ajax can tell you though, government agencies collect detailed data on car accidents, and we can use this data to better understand the scope of the problem.

General Figures

A good personal injury lawyer in Ajax is likely familiar with some of these numbers, but if you’re looking to go into your free consultation prepared, we’ve gathered information from the 2013 Ontario Road Safety Annual Report (the most recent of such).

In 2013, there were approximately 43,000 “fatal and personal injury collisions”. These involved approximately 80,500 drivers and 81,500 vehicles.

Of the people involved in the total amount of collisions, approximately 60,000 sustained personal injuries and 429 died. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation estimates that there are 9.5 million licensed drivers in the province, which, extrapolating annually, means that 622 drivers per 100,000 are injured and 5 drivers per 100,000 are killed in accidents yearly.

These numbers are only the most basic, though. The Ontario Collision Database has far more detailed statistics.

Types of Accidents

While a personal injury lawyer in Ajax will have experience handling cases for all types of accidents, there are a few types that are vastly more frequent than others. Of the 43,000 fatal and personal injury collisions in Ontario, more than 24,000 were the result of rear end accidents or accidents involving a single motor vehicle. To put that into perspective, the next three most common accident types—“turning movement” accidents, accidents at an angle, and sideswipe collisions—caused about 15,500 collisions. Further, single motor vehicle accidents led to more than half of all motor vehicle fatalities.

Highest Fatality Risks

5 road fatalities per 100,000 licensed drivers is a low yearly number, to be sure. However, if you hope that this number lowers even further, the situations that account for the highest percentages of road fatalities will frustrate you, since they are generally preventable. For example, drinking and driving collisions caused 119 deaths in 2013, or 25 percent of all road fatalities. Inattentive driving (also known as distracted driving), led to 79 deaths, approximately 17 percent of the total. Speed-related collisions and unbelted occupant fatalities killed a total of 130 people (65 each), making up 14 percent of the total per situation.

For a personal injury lawyer in Ajax, the type of accident or the risky behaviour involved is only important insofar as it relates to your case. Any Toronto personal injury lawyer will be determined to get you the compensation that you need after your serious accident, regardless of statistics. Look up the best personal injury lawyer you can find to get a free consultation today.